From anti-idyll to the “poem of desolation”: the traditions of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin in the “estate text” of the early XX century

On the basis of thematic proximity and similarity of a number of formal features (chronotope of the noble nest; the image of the negative aspects of the es- tate life; the weakening of cause-and-effect relations between the events; the system of characters, tied by relation, but separated spiritually; the specificity of organization of speech) genre transformations in the last novel of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin “Old Years in Poshe khonye” (1889) and in the short stories cycle of I.A. Bunin “Black Earth” (1903) have compared. The theme of returning to their homeland also brings them closer together — a mental appeal to the past, that is, in Poshekhon’s childhood by Saltykov-Shchedrin, the road to the family estate — by Bunin. In both works embodied a persistent conflict that does not find a final solution. The sharp denial of the present state of reality, characteristic of satire, presupposes the existence of an ideal, which in the works by Saltykov-Shchedrin and appears as an idyllic picture of the world. In relation to it, the image of estate life in both “Old Years in Poshekhonye” and “Black Earth” is anti-idyllic: here everything is the opposite and contradicts the idyllic notions of peaceful life in harmony with nature. In Bunin’s story, this feature is shown in the appeal to the genre of “poem of desolation”.

From the estate to the commune: history of noble estates in 1920–1930-s (based on the material of the “Pedagogical poem” of A.S. Makarenko)

The paper is dedicated to the issue of establishment of colonies and communes for homeless children on the site of former estates. The focus is on A.S. Makarenko’s colony n.a. M. Gorky, which had been located on a farm, in Triba, Poltava province, since 1920, and which moved to rural area of Kovaliovka in 1923 (previously owned by brothers V.E. and E.E. Trepke). According to the “Pedagogicheskaya poema” (“The Pedagogical Poem”), letters of Makarenko and historical references, it can be understood what history the landscaped estate with a rationally established economy had had. Though it had being plundered and finally had become “dead kingdom”. Colonists not only renewed the buildings but also landscaped the surrounding area: they built the greenhouse, put in order the yards and the riverbank, cleared the garden and laid out flowerbeds. Beside this, they regulated agricultural production: they cultivated and planted fields, started farming. The Trepke estate has changed, but the cultural layer has been preserved, since the new householders have not destroyed it but adapted to their needs. The history of the colony n.a. Gorky presents how the new owners of ruined country estates have given to estate the new life.

The originality of the “estate topos” in the A.N. Tolstoy’s novel “Peter the First”

Moscow is the city which united the characters of A.N. Tolstoy’s novel “Peter the First”. Kitay-Gorod is the space where the action of the first book is mainly set. In the novel Tolstoy showed in great detail the everyday life of the city and its inhabi- tants. According to the I.E. Zabelin’s research (“History of the city of Moscow”) in late 17 — early 18 th centuries Moscow was like a big village that is why Tolstoy relied on his childhood memories about the life in the small village Sosnovka (Samara Region) describing the streets of Moscow. The novel begins with the description of a poor peasant household of Brovkin near Moscow, then Volkov’s noble estate is depicted and Menshikov’s house. The space of the city is expanding with each new “address”. Moscow estates, and in particular, connected with the figure of “guardian, lover of the Princess-ruler” V.V. Golitsyn, in Tolstoy’s novel are inextricably linked with the character’s living and with the life of the country. The description of the palace built by Golitsyn at the peak of his career is based on the Sergei Solovyov’s “History of Russia in ancient times”. Golitsyn left it and went to his estate outside Moscow Medvedkovo and from there in exile.

Invincibility of Space: the estate in A.P. Chekhov’s plays

The characteristic plot in the drama of A.P. Chekhov is associated with a sense of tragedy of provincial life, and the writer’s positive characters are torn from the estate, which under his pen begins to be perceived as part of the Russian province. The DOI: 10.22455/978-5-9208-0627-7-218-227 219 characters in Chekhov’s dramas are divided into the indigenous inhabitants of the estate (autochthons) and its transit visitors returning to where they came from. The opposition autochthonous / transit оnе implements the archetypal relationship of the wanderer and the homebody, which were ethically balanced figures in Russian literature of the first half of the XIX century. However, Chekhov, who portrayed the historical and cultural situation in Russia at the turn of the XIX–XX centuries, depicts transit heroes less attractive than autochthons. Believing that in the modern conditions of destruction of the “estate culture” it is impossible to live fully in the estate on a permanent basis, Chekhov nevertheless settled there the most sympathetic of his heroes. Escaping from the estate, they saved their lives, but they did it at the cost of betrayal of family shrines and lofty ideals.

The “estate topos” in the works of representatives of the “peasant concord” group

“Estate topos” is usually considered in the works of authors who had estates or for a long time were living in estates of their relatives and friends. Significantly less attention is paid to the characterization of the “estate topos” in the texts of the authors, who, due to class restrictions, were not the owners of the estates and their frequent guests. In the literature of the Russian Silver Age, these are primarily the poets of the “peasant concord” group: N. Klyuev, S. Ese nin, A. Shiryaevets, S. Klychkov and oth- ers. For them, the most important and often the earliest in time of development of the source of knowledge about the Russian estate was Russian literature. The poets got an idea of estate complexes from personal experience. Elements of these complexes become symbols, each of which has a semantic filling formed over a long period. Revolutionary events of 1917–1921 lead to the rapid death of the estate world. If Klyuev in the early post-revolutionary years welcomed this process, then for Shiryaevets the Russian estate is inseparable from peasant life, Esenin is characterized by the transfer of elements of landlord complexes to the space of the peasant estate, in the heritage of Klychkov, like some other authors, an important role is played by a garden connected not only with the landowner estate, but also with peasant life, with the Garden of Eden.

Poetosphere and mythopoetics of the estate in A.A. Blok’s dramatic poem “Song of Fate”

As it noted by the researchers, the “Song of fate” accumulates painful thoughts of A.A. Blok about the fate of Russia and about his personal fate associat ed with the past, present and future of the Motherland. In addition to the ideological problems raised in it, the poem is interesting in an attempt to escape from the specifics of historical and national-cultural realities through their symbolization, combining the plans of life and being. The white house with a garden on the hill, in which the action of the play begins and the return to which is implied at the end, incorporates the most important features of Russia as a cultural, natural and spiritual space. The world of the estate is opposed by the space of the modern city and the big world of Russian open spaces. However, the estate for Blok is Russia the same. Therefore, Elena, the keeper of the estate, and Faina, the personalization of the world element, are two parts of one whole, as if the projection of an ideal Russia. The plot of the “Song of fate”, accord ing to D.M. Magomedova, I.S. Prikhodko, etc., is an artistic realization of the Gnostic myth of the captive Sophia, the Soul of the world. The imposition of the Gnostic myth in the “Song of fate” on the entire existing in Russian literature of the XIX century poetosphere of the estate leads to the creation of the author’s myth about Russia, the transformation of poetosphere in the mythopoetics.

Mythopoetics of the Siberian estate in the Russian prose of the end of the XIX — the first third of the XX centuries

For the first time in the history and criticism of literature the article regards the features of the Siberian “estate topos” as a new modification of the Russian culture “estate text”, typical for the literature of the late XIX — the first third of the XX centuries. In the prose of N.A. Lukhmanova, M.M. Prishvin, N.M. Yadrintsev Tyumen merchant estate transforms into a new “cultural space”. The shift from the philosophy of the rural life to the “business” philosophy and the idea of the commercial Siberian estate bring forward the new topos-related notions: “estate is a factory” and “tannery Lyon”. We introduce the comparative mythopoetics of the Siberian city and country estates through the processes of demythologization of classical country “estate myth” and local remythologization of the concepts: “estate is a fortress”, “estate is a garden / a greenhouse”, and “estate is a nest”. The merchant “estate topos” forms at the intersection of the Russian land Paradise lost and the Siberian Eden, newly created by settlers. The Tyumen schismatic estate be comes “the promised land” or the city of Kitezh: the sacred space of secret chapels, “the underground Kingdom of our Fathers’ faith”. The emphasis is also given to the “theatri cality” of the merchant “estate” play behavior.

“Houses are alive. No?”The image of a “revived” house in English literaturein the late XIX — early XX century

In this article we will talk about the unusual topos that occurs in Victorian and Edwardian literature — the “revived” estate. Indirectly going back to Gothic literature and the “horror literature” that inherited it (where the house can come to life literally, become harmful, frightening and even mortally dangerous for the inhabitant), however, it develops in a completely different way. The ghosts that inhabit the rooms of such a mansion are the guardians of a good and bright memory, “hidden joy”; embodied by the past, who lives in a shaky, invisible world. These ghosts have many hypostases: sometimes they turn out to be just a figment of the tenant’s imagination, and sometimes they are a real poltergeist, but not frightening, but protecting and preserving (W. Woolf, “A Haunted House”). Another manifestation of this topos can be called a house that comes to life, when the hero distinguishes between the beating of his heart (as happens in the novel by E.M. Forster “Howards End”) or hears a whisper of voices in the curtains shaken by the wind. The combination of these two motives (poltergeist and living house) is also found in the works of modernists (W. Woolf, “Orlando: A Biography”). Of particular interest is the image of a revived estate house in children’s literature; in this vein, we will consider the novel by Ph. Pierce, “Tom’s Midnight Garden”.

Estate world in Bunin`s prose:from “Sukhodol” to “Wanderings” and “The Life of Arseniev”

The image of the estate — “noble nest” is one of the key ones in Bunin’s depiction of Russian world. This image is illuminated before a reader by writer`s works of different years. It is examined how this image is changing, is subjected to correction and even transformation depending on the time when the book was written. Prognostic and culturally sensitive writer’s concept translated into a fatal attachment of the characters to the estate (“Sukhodol”). That attachment is akin to a religion. Writer’s concept is implemented this way with help of master poetics of surrealism that create the picture where “dreams are sometimes richer than reality”. The dramaticism of culturally sensitive view is replaced by the tragic of an apocalyptic vision in the works of beginning emigrant period (“Nameday”). The phase of “return” of Russian estate to timeless space of culture begins in 1930s — 1940s (“Wanderings”, “The Life of Arseniev”). The culture as well as the Russian world as a whole is illuminated as “not temporary and distorted but eternal and metaphysically enlightened”. It is necessary to bear in mind that in addition to cross-cutting transformations of the estate’s image, world of the estate is organically linked with the general concept in every specific work. This image is enriched with new semantic focuses and nuances every time.

Estate Petrovsko-Razumovskoein Russian history and literature of XIX–XX centuries

The article is devoted to Petrovsko-Razumovskoye estate history: after had belonged to the most noble and wealthy Russian families: Shuysky, Naryshkin, Razumovsky it was finally sold for arranging Agricultural academy named after Peter the Great (now Timiryazev) in 1860. In 1869 the place became infamous because of a murder, which then turned the subject of F.M. Dostoyevsky novel “The Deamons”. But this case does not exhaust the richness of Petrovsko-Razumovskoye literature life.